Waterfront offices for county staff?

On Monday, the Santa Rosa County Board of Commissioners met to review the proposed design for the new Navarre Beach Boardwalk, complete with retail spaces for small businesses, a food truck court and — most baffling of all — eight offices for tourism staff.

Currently, the tourism staff work from a building at Navarre Park along the sound — arguably already a scenic office setting. Now the proposal suggests shifting them to a slice of beachside paradise. Not only does this raise eyebrows about fiscal priorities, it also begs a deeper question: Who benefits most from our public spaces?

Commissioner Colten Wright didn’t mince words when he challenged the wisdom of using Gulf-front property this way. “Gulf front is expensive real estate – I think it’s not necessarily the best use of our money to put offices there,” he stated, echoing the sentiment many locals likely share. Wright’s comment touches on something essential: beachfront property isn’t just valuable financially, it’s symbolically the heart of community access, tourism and civic life.

County Chairman Kerry Smith struck a similar chord, expressing admiration for the boardwalk’s aesthetics but disappointment in the limited number of retail spaces. He noted bluntly, “It is a waste to have offices in there.” Smith’s comments are grounded in practical reality. Surrendering a significant portion of the boardwalk to administrative offices — especially when the proposed tenants already have a home — seems counterintuitive.

The current tourism/visitor center offices are only open Monday – Friday from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. They are not open on weekends when most people check-in to hotels and condos, and they are never open on holidays – which are some of the most-traveled weekends. The question is, who are they serving other than themselves?

If this boardwalk is truly meant to showcase what Navarre has to offer — entrepreneurial spirit, community engagement and coastal culture — then its design must reflect that. More space for small businesses. More opportunities for local creatives and makers. More places for families and visitors to connect with the waterfront in meaningful, accessible ways.

The second part of the meeting’s tourism discussion was the $950,000 advertising contract with Paradise Marketing. You know, the people who created “Get Relaxing” as our brand. Who would know to go to getrelaxing.com to look for all the things about Navarre Beach? That is not a brand. And can you use “get relaxing” in a sentence? We don’t know anyone who says that in a serious conversation – even in our most southern accent, “I’m gonna go get relaxing” doesn’t make sense.

Our website should have “Navarre Beach” in its name. Years and years ago, our tourism website was www.visitnavarrebeach.com. But our current tourism office allowed the domain name to expire without renewing it. They were then offered the URL NavarreBeach.com. They turned it down. Those websites get organic traffic all day long from people looking for more information on Navarre Beach.

That is the result you get when you have an agency from outside of our area creating the messaging. Paradise Marketing is from St. Petersburg, Florida, and the problem with that is those places see Northwest Florida as “lower Alabama” and they market us as such. One of their ads says, “Plenty of neat places to get some shut-eye. Not that you’ll want to.” Who says “neat” and “shut-eye?” Another one said, “Nightlife? You betcha.”

They are out of touch with who we are.

This the same company who advertised “Direct flights to Navarre Beach from Nashville.” We have several family members who live in the area that were particularly interested in where the new airport in Navarre is. We could only think of Boomer Aviation’s landing strip across from Walmart. Maybe you have to jump out of the plane as it picks up its next banner – you know, adventure tourism.

We think Tamara Fountain had it absolutely right when, at the meeting, she said commissioners needed a master plan for Navarre Beach. Stop making piecemeal decisions and take a look at measurable goals for tourism and advertising. We are complacent about advertising in the same markets, in the same way as we always have been with an unrecognizable brand.

Commissioners, we are challenging you to take a very hard look at this project and the advertising contract. Please be better stewards of those very precious dollars. Let’s not throw money at an ad campaign, and let’s not spend millions on a boardwalk with tourism offices in it.